Upon a Time
by Nautica7mk
Summary: AU. Clark Kent finally meets the cousin his best friend, Chloe Sullivan, has been telling him about for years.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Upon a Time 1/4  
**Author**: Nadia  
**Rated**: PG  
**Disclaimer**: I Own Nothing  
**Timeline**: Pre-Season 4  
**Summary**: Clark Kent finally meets the cousin his best friend, Chloe Sullivan, has been telling him about for years.

Smallville High School, The Torch

Clark has spent the last few hours after school typing furiously on the keyboard for an article he was forced to complete after one of Chloe's volunteers caught the flu.

He keeps on typing, trying to come up with a suitable closing so he could finally end the day.

He found none and his mind was oblivious to everything around him.

"Careful there, farm boy, I doubt the Board of Education file claims for students who develop carpal tunnel syndrome."

Clark turned around, mildly bewildered. The voice was unfamiliar to him and meeting her face to face, her eyes weren't either.

"Excuse me," he could only say.

Looking at him from top to bottom, "So you're Clark Kent," she says.

He raised his eyebrows; a neon sign can fly across him that said confused while the girl… or woman before him looked at him with a sly grin.

"Have we met?" Clark's stomach starts to flutter and it was a feeling that only ever happens when he's nervous.

"Not until now," she quipped, approaching him and holding her hand out. "Nice to finally meet you, Smallville"

"Huh?" He briefly wondered where she came up with the term 'Smallville' but then realized he was living in the town. "I'm sorry," he hesitantly shook her hand. "I'm a little confused"

And then that's when it happened. Her grin turned into a smile, and to him it was infectious.

They stood, staring at one another for a moment when another person walked into the room.

"Sorry I took so long, cuz." Clark turned to see Chloe pass him and hug the woman he still has yet to meet. 

He points back and forth. "You know her, Chloe?" The question was stupid; of course they knew each other. A reporter he is not.

"Yup!" she exclaimed, her face gleaming with excitement. "Clark, meet Lois Lane, my cousin," she announced cheerfully. Clark had never seen her look or sound so happy, especially when it had nothing to do with a story.

"Lois Lane?"

She raised a hand in the air. "Guilty," she replied, smiling.

"Wow," Clark says softly.

Chloe and Lois looks at him oddly with a 'huh' and 'what' reaction.

"Cow," he recovered. "Umm… I… umm… have to get going?" He goes to grab his stuff messed across several desks.

"Now? I was hoping we could all go out for dinner," says Chloe.

Stuffing one last piece of notebook in his back pack, Clark turned to them, but keeping eye contact away from Lois.

"I'm really sorry, Chloe, but I forgot that I have to check on the farm tonight." He walks around several desks. "I'll see you guys later." He stopped and halted in front of a still Lois, confused about which direction to leave in, her left or her right. "It's nice meeting you, Lois"

Then he was gone.

"He was pretty weird," observed Lois.

"That's Clark Kent for ya," Chloe agreed.

Then Lois added, "Works for him though"

**To be continued…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2 **

The next few days had been uneventful except for the fact that Chloe spoke nonstop about her cousin. It had been surprising to Clark how fondly Chloe spoke of Lois Lane. He only ever remembers her talking about her cousin briefly during the years they have known each other, but now that she was physically in Smallville, she has nothing but endless stories to tell about her.

That kind of admission made him feel intimated, jealous and intrigued all at the same time.

"So, Chloe, what are you up to this weekend?" Clark already knew what the answer to that was. Since Lois' arrival, he felt like he was competing for Chloe's attention against a rival he could never defeat, and his numerous superhuman abilities did nothing to change that fact.

"I'm going to this bar with Lois," she answered.

Clark sighed. He had been right yet again. "Isn't that a little illegal?" he asked boyishly. Leave it to him to ruin the excitement.

"She's eighteen, Clark and besides, we're not going there to act as rebellious teenagers, Lois and I have a thing for karaoke," she reluctantly admitted when she reached the end of the sentence.

He was surprised. "You sing karaoke?"

She shook her head. "Hardly," she smiled. "It's something we do since like… forever, and it always fun, especially when we screw up badly"

"Sounds embarrassing," he smiled back thoughtfully, the image of Lois and Chloe singing to a rendition of various pop songs crossing his mind.

"You should come," Chloe recommended.

Clark raised his hand in protest. "No, that's all right, I think I'll pass." He doesn't want to admit it, even to himself, but being around Lois made him a bit insecure, as if he was working himself to death to impress her.

"Oh, come on Clark, you've barely hung out with us," Chloe complained. "Is it Lois? I know she can be a little forward." Clark eyed her with raised eyebrows. "Okay, a lot forward, but that's just a part of her charm."

He was very much aware of that, and truth be told, there was many reasons he was avoiding that cousin of hers.

Chloe continued. "Before my dad and I moved here, I spent the summer with Lois and her dad in Norfolk, and I had this craving for sweets. We were in this store, and there was this bowl of candies. I reached out a grabbed a handful; then the clerk saw me and started getting mad. Oh man, you should've seen him, he was angry and I was like, twelve, and then Lois just swooped in and explained to my dad that she was just about to pay for them. The clerk was so embarrassed that he let me have them for free. She is by far the coolest person I know," she finished the story with childlike awe.

Clark was a bit offended at the acknowledgment, but then again, he often found himself listening in rapt attention as Chloe recalled many of their adventures.

"You really think a lot of her, don't you?" Clark asked, and again, it was a question he already knew the answer to but he couldn't help but ask.

Chloe beamed at the question.

"Even though we live in different countries, and you know, different continents, I can always count on her," she revealed earnestly.

Clark fell silently and Chloe immediately noticed the change.

"You're not jealous are you?"

"What?" he says, his face displaying otherwise. "Of course not… she's your cousin, it makes sense that she ranks higher than the rest of us"

"Oh, so you are jealous," she says amusingly.

"No!" he denied, but it was a denial Chloe could see through. "She's not my type"

Her demeanor changed. "I didn't realize you were interested," she replied, getting a suspicious glance from Clark.

He shifted uncomfortably. "Isn't that what you meant?" He groaned inwardly when he realized that he jumped to conclusions.

Chloe shook her head. "No, I thought it was because I was spending more time with her than you and anybody else," she says matter-of-factly.

Clark couldn't tell whether Chloe was upset because her face remained somewhat indifferent. He had no idea how to get himself out of this one.

"I kind of feel like a third wheel around you two," he finally admitted.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," she says truthfully, not denying his statement. "I rarely see her nowadays and when I do, I sort of loose track of time"

"It's okay," he tells her honestly. "I understand"

"Well, in other news," she transitioned to a different topic when she noted the sensitivity around the topic of her cousin. "What's going on with you?"

He looks at her confused. "What do you mean?"

She laughs. "You know, your life, parents… Lana…" she added reluctantly. 

Clark stopped and thought about what she asked and to be honest, since Lois' appearance in Smallville; he had rarely thought about Lana and that in itself was surprising. He looked at Chloe and shrugged.

"What, are you telling me you haven't thought about Lana Lang this entire time?" she says in disbelief.

He sighed. "Is it hard to believe that I can revolve my life not around her?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do"

Unbeknownst to her, he'd always felt like he revolved his life around Lana, but he was beginning to realize that it wasn't the case, and with that knowledge firmly in his grasp, a large weight was finally relinquished off his shoulders.

The following day, in the early morning, Clark prepared the news layout at The Torch for Chloe to check on before their first class began for the day.

Adjusting one article after another, he soon realized that editing wasn't his forte.

"We have to stop meeting like this," a voice he found himself familiarizing with says from behind.

He couldn't prevent the smirk that formed in his lips when she spoke as his back remained to her.

"It would be nice if you had called first," he retorted turning around to face her, her face always displaying a mix of amusement and mystery. "What brings Lois Lane to this humble abode?"

She smiles before approaching him. "It's good to know there's a personality beneath all that plaid you wear, Smallville" she teased.

Clark gives out a small laugh at the nickname she so conveniently named him since the very moment they met. As he watched her move in, the air of confidence around her was astonishing. Although he could see the family traits between her and Chloe, it was Lois's unique dynamism that clearly showed the difference. 

Despite only knowing her for a week, he has yet to peg her.

"What can I do for you?" he asked, his voice showing a bit of playfulness.

"Hmm… I could think of a few things"

Clark was wide-eyed, was she flirting with him. No… was he flirting with her first? Apparently, his lapse was clear for her to see.

"Down boy," she teased. "I'm just messing with you"

He breathed out a sigh of relief and immediately changed the subject. "Chloe's not here"

"Damn!" she crossed her arms and leaned against the 'Wall of Weird.' Clark chuckled but then noticed her gaze look at the various clippings that acted as wallpaper on the wall.

"You know, for years she always told me about these things but I never really knew what all the fuss was about until she finally showed it to me," she says, and this time her voice was low yet mindful.

Clark stuck his hands in his pockets and slowly made his way closer to the wall she stood near at.

"Not a lot of people take it seriously"

"I can see why," she observed, her gaze locking on a headline that screams tabloid fodder.

"You can't know until you experience it yourself," Clark found himself defending Chloe's work, and in a way, himself.

Lois's face remained the same, but then she looked at him thoughtfully. "I wasn't judging"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't implying…"

"Apology accepted," she replied.

Clark smiled. "I'm surprised, most people find this sort of thing bizarre, but you seem to take it well"

She eyed him masterly. "I'm not most people," she replied and then, "If anything, my dad always taught me never to judge a book by its cover," she added thoughtfully. "And you? What do you think about all these things?"

"Staggering," he replied, surprised with himself for answering her without hesitance.

"Interesting adjective there"

Clark smiled again; he seems to do that a lot around her, even if he was avoiding hanging out with her and Chloe.

"I don't know how else to explain it, ever since the meteor shower, the town has had more than one brush with the unexplained"

"I'm sure your life has become a lot more interesting because of it," she presumed.

"You have no idea," he mumbled under his breath, remembering his border with the meteor infected people over the last three years.

"What?" Lois turned to him, not quite hearing what he said. "Did you say something?"

Clark leaped a bit at the slip.

"Sorry, I was just thinking out loud," he replied and was grateful she didn't purge any further.

"You know, this is actually the longest conversation you and I have had since I came here," she observed.

"Yeah?" he replied shyly.

She simply smiled. "Chloe talks nonstop about you, but between you and me, I think she has a crush on you," she lead on, but then smirked. "But if you ever tell her I told you I will deny it wholeheartedly and with heavy conviction"

"Well then, I'll make sure it doesn't fall to the wrong hands." He found himself returning her banter head on. Chloe's feelings for him aren't anything he didn't know, and considering how close the cousin's were, he wasn't at all surprised Lois knew. But what surprised him more was how much they were flirting dangerously close to one another.

She didn't seem to notice, and Clark was perturbed by the fact that he did.

"Chloe speaks highly of you as well," he tells her and that was the truth. The closeness notwithstanding, he finds himself enjoying her company. "Why haven't you visited her before?"

Lois looked away and approached the windows slowly, gazing at Smallville High's filling parking lot.

"The General travels a lot, so I spend most of my time readjusting to every new locale we find ourselves in"

"The General?" he says in wonderment.

"My dad"

"Oh. Why do you call him that?"

"Because he is"

He realized she didn't want to talk about it, and so he respected her wishes. "So what do you think of Smallville?"

"Small," she answered.

Clark smiled widely at that. He consciously made an effort to stop doing that, but he found that it was really hard.

A moment passed when Lois speaks out again. "Well, I'm going to peruse the halls of this fine educational establishment to see if I can manage to brainwash my dear cousin on taking a road trip with me to the shiny tall buildings known as Metropolis," she says sarcastically, yet seriously at the same time as she exited The Torch.

Clark found himself temporarily speechless long after she left the room. He turned and saw Lois enter the parking lot greeting her cousin warmly with a hug.

He was definitely confused around her. Since his life intersected of that with Lex Luthor three years earlier, he has grown so used to people wanting something out of each other one way or another, but Lois was different. She came to Smallville with only the intention of spending time with her cousin.

That was quite an attractive trait, and the fact that she has a very fiery personality and easy on the eyes didn't help one bit.

**To be continued…**


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3 of 4**

It was Lois' second week in Smallville and Chloe was having the time of her life. Her cousin easily persuaded her to take some time off from The Torch; her power of persuasion was always far more compelling than anything she could think up. She took a mental note to have her teach her the ways of the Lane one of these days.

Relaxing within the walls of Smallville's resident coffee house, The Talon, Lois and Chloe were mapping out their days' events.

"There's a barn party about forty five miles outside of town tonight," she recommended as she held out a flyer that was given to her the night before.

Chloe looks at her idly. "How do you find these things, Lois?" She often wondered who the reporter in the family was even though Lois had no interest in journalism whatsoever. She's a natural at it.

Lois shrugs. "What do you mean?"

"Every time we get together, you always find something interesting to do. I've lived here for years, and the most excitement I get are meteor-freaks going homicidal and natural disasters. You're here a day and already you've got connections. What's your secret?"

"Yeah, I know," she replied with confidence while flawlessly avoiding the question.

Chloe balled a couple of napkins together and uses her cousin as target practice. "HAHAHA…" Chloe's says, both cousins laughing.

Across the room, Martha Kent notices the two young ladies having a good time. She sees Clark approach the counter, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before turning his attention at the same two ladies she was just eying a moment ago.

"They're very close," Martha observed.

Clark just shrugged it off. "I guess." He's hasn't really had the chance to talk with Lois since their last impromptu meeting at The Torch just a few days ago. Although he wanted to deny it, he kind of missed talking to her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Why?" His mom always had a way of seeing through his facade.

"Lois seems nice; she helped out the other day with the register"

"Yeah." When he processed what his mother just said, he went back. "What? You let a stranger handle the register?"

"Lois is hardly a stranger, Clark. We were really shorthanded and I asked if she could help. Besides, at the end of the day, everything was accounted for"

Clark relaxed, but was still a little troubled by the fact that even his mom had gotten to know a little bit about Lois than he did.

"What do you think of her?" he found himself asking.

She looked back at the young woman before returning her gaze to her son. "She seems bored"

Clark looked at her confusingly. "What do you mean?"

"She's bright but when I asked her about school and her future, she didn't really have any answers. She's attending Met-U next fall and she's anything but excited"

"She told you that?" A part of him was thrilled that Lois would be living close by but then worried at how things could possibly change.

"Not in so many words, but she did look uninterested. I just think she isn't challenged enough." Martha then noticed how Clark was looking at her and momentarily wondered what he could be thinking. "Why don't you go over there?"

Clark debated whether or not to do so since he saw Chloe's car outside. "I don't want to impose," he convinced himself.

Martha's motherly instincts kicked in and realized perhaps that there was something about Chloe's cousin that has her son's head spinning. Smiling at the thought, she grabbed a tray of muffins and handed it to Clark.

"Here," she says and gazed towards the two females across the room. "Give them some muffins," she recommended. Clark eyed the muffins and their table for a second before making his decision. He got up and kissed his mom on the cheek again.

"Thanks"

Martha smiled brightly as she watched her son approach the girls' table. If she didn't know any better, Clark is smitten by the town visitor.

"Hi," Clark greeted rather apprehensively as he approached their table.

Lois and Chloe turned to him and greeted him in return.

"What ya got there, Smallville?" Lois smiled, noticing the tray in his hands.

"Muffins," he answered, smiling too. "From mom"

"Yes!" Chloe says, raising both hands up in the air. She put it down when she garnered weird looks from the crowd as well as her companions. "What?" she looked at her cousin defiantly. "You'd be doing the same thing if you tasted her cooking"

Lois shook her head, chuckling at her and then moved over to make room for Clark in the booth she and Chloe sat at.

Clark hesitated to sit down next to her but did so anyway.

"Care to join us?" Lois says then pointing to Chloe.

"Yeah, Clark," Chloe says, holding up a flyer. Clark takes it. "Lois found this barn party outside of town, we're heading over there tonight. Want to come? You know what, forget it. You're coming with us," she concluded without giving Clark the chance to say no because she knew he would.

"I don't know, Chloe"

"Come on, Smallville, live a little," Lois pursued.

"I have a name, you know," Clark responded. She only ever said his real name once and it wasn't even used directly.

"I know," she says, then finishing with, "Smallville"

Clark grins at her, and she grins right back at him in return. Chloe on the other hand caught the exchange both in interest and with a tiny bit of hurt, but she made sure not to show it. She got the feeling early on the reason why Clark had been adamant about spending time with them was that he was seeing Lois differently, and that he may very well be interested in her.

Lois' cell suddenly starts ringing off. She looks at it, her face changing from fun to annoyed in a matter of milliseconds.

"Everything all right?" Chloe asks.

"Parental unit is calling; the general must have a need to blame me for something. Excuse me while he and I scream outside." Clark moved out of the booth to let her exit. Watching her head outside, Clark turned to Chloe with interest.

"She doesn't get along with her dad?"

Chloe momentarily puts aside what she was thinking and answered his question truthfully. "Not so much. Uncle Sam has always been hard on Lois"

"Why?"

"After her mom died, he practically just let Lois raise herself; of course he doesn't see it that way"

"That's harsh." He could truly sympathize with the whole father issue.

"Yeah, but she became a better person for it"

Somehow, even though he barely knew Lois, he believed Chloe.

"So, what do you think of her?" Chloe suddenly shifted topics.

Clark was thrown off a bit. "Excuse me"

"What do you think of Lois, she's been here a while now, I want to know what you think?"

"What do you mean?" he replied evasively. He had a feeling there was more to her question than she led on, he knew her too well to think otherwise. "We haven't really talked that much"

"Hmm-mm," she replied unconvinced. "Yet you flirt so well with her"

Clark wasn't sure whether that was an accusation or an attack against him. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about, Chloe. We're more like acquaintances than friends, we've spoken a total of about, what, a half an hour since she's been here"

"Could've fooled me, you two talk like you've known each other forever"

"What's this really about?" He felt like she was baiting him.

Chloe frowned when she realized what she was doing. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to badger you like that." She sat up straighter and gripped her coffee cup tightly. "You seem comfortable around her, and I guess I got a little defensive"

He understood. "You're not going to lose me to her, Chloe," he assured her.

She shook her head knowingly. "No, Clark, it's not that. I don't want to lose Lois to you," she rephrased.

Clark felt like he was hit with a semi-truck, and for him, that kind of chances were high. "What?" he exclaimed, obviously confused.

"I've known Lois practically my whole life," she began to explain. "And I know you and I would never be more than friends, and I'm learning to be okay with that…" Clark tries to get a word in but is stopped by Chloe. "Please… let me get this out before I end up fumbling." Clark quieted himself and let her continue. "You have your parents… I have Lois," she tries to explain clearly. "I don't know how else to say it"

"Chloe…" he spoke out softly.

"I guess I'm afraid that if you and Lois become friends, or even more than that… that she'll forget about me. Sharing your friendship was one thing, I honestly don't know what it'd be like sharing hers," she sadly admitted. She's never had to share Lois with anyone.

"Chloe," he speaks over her. "I barely know her," he tried to rationalize it himself. "Just because we spoke a couple of times, it doesn't mean we're walking down the isle to have and to hold"

"Now I'm worried!" she sighed.

Clark blinked. "What? WHY?"

"Because even with Lana, you've never used the m-word"

He remained confused. "The m-what?"

"Marriage!" she whispered to him.

Clark couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Marriage? Chloe, what are you on? I'm not even out of high school yet and you're thinking about me getting married." Clark didn't even know if his lineage would even allow him to be a part of a marriage.

"Who's getting marriage?" Lois interrupted, coming back from her talk with her father.

"Nothing," Clark replies instinctively. "Chloe and I were just talking about random stuff"

Lois eyed him oddly, but only responded with a smirk before sitting down. Over the next twenty minutes, the cousins double-teamed against Kent to get him to go to the barn party with them, and after continued harassment and an overabundance of peer pressure, Clark finally broke down and agreed.

_The Barn Party_

Lois and Clark were at the bar counter while Chloe was getting drunk and jiggy with it in the dance floor. Lois looks amused while Clark frowned, worried for his friends safety. Lois notices his bleak expression.

"Relax, Smallville, we won't let anything bad happen to her," she assured.

"What if someone tries to take advantage of her out there?" he asks, always looking at everything pessimistically.

"Then I'll break their legs," she answered simply before taking another drink of her soda. This was apparently her cousin's first foray into barn parties so she wanted to make sure everything went by smoothly and decided not to drink. Clark on the other hand just wasn't a drinker.

Just then, they were interrupted by a slightly drunk fella. "Hey babe, I'm Greg," he introduced himself, holding his hand out.

Lois shakes his hand, unimpressed. "Hi, I'm not interested," she replied, her voice very direct. The guy, Greg, let go and turned around both disappointed and embarrassed, he wasn't as drunk as Clark originally thought.

Lois takes another sip of her non alcoholic beverage before noticing the look Clark was giving her.

"What?" she says annoyed.

"Do you turn down every guy like that?" It was like the 3rd guy that approached her tonight and they weren't even there that long.

"I wasn't interested," she answered him truthfully. "What was I suppose to do? If I responded with a name then I'm automatically obligated to have a drink with him, which means I'll be stuck in a conversation I don't care much for listening to, which then is followed up with either a dance or a table for two. And at that point he'll be under the impression that there was a chance so he asks for my number, and in turn I give him a fake one," she sighed. "I didn't want to go through all that trouble"

It was apparent that she was a professional when it came to the world of dating. A field he knew little to nothing about. Just look at his prior relationships, if you could even call it that.

Chloe Sullivan lasted a dance whereas Lana Lang lasted a couple of days, those were hardly called a relationship. Alicia Baker attempted to murder his friends, and Kyla… well, his experiences have been less than happy. Truly being in love hasn't yet happened to him, or even if it ever will.

"You've been around the block," he commented, he hoped it didn't come out offensively.

She shrugged, unmoved by the opinion.

"Being the daughter of a general requires a heavy dose of control. If you don't know how to take care of yourself, we might as well wear a sign over our heads saying 'victim,' and I'm not victim"

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe they just wanted a drink?" he challenged, unsure why he was doing so.

"Every. Damn. Time," she responded with a laugh.

Clark returned her laugh easily. "You're a lot different than I imagined," he finally got to admit as their laughter died down.

"What?" She yelled. Lois could barely hear him now as the band on stage got louder and louder.

"I said… You're A LOT Different than I IMAGINED!" he repeated. He practically forgot that he was the only one with super hearing in world. Probably the universe.

This time, she heard him. "Oh yeah… what'd you expect?" She sincerely wondered as she glanced back and forth from Clark to her cousin. She chuckled as she witnessed her cousin head banging to the heavy metal music.

"I'm NOT quite sure," he says loudly as he led her outside. Clark made a mental note not to go far enough to the point where Lois couldn't see Chloe in her view.

Once the music went down a little from ear shot, it was finally nice to be able to think without the constant bass pounding every second.

"That was loud," he says.

"It's a barn party, that's sort of the point," she quipped.

"Can't you go ten minutes without cracking a joke?"

"I can," she replied truthfully. "But I won't," she finished defiantly but with a grin.

"You like doing what you want, don't you?" This girl confused him. He still didn't know what to make of her. Over drinks, albeit, the non-fun kind, she had been tightlipped about her life, which he found odd since Chloe was more than willing to share some aspects of her.

"Of course… I was raised to be independent and self-sufficient"

"That's definitely one way to describe you"

"Granted, we barely know each other, other than the obvious, but the only thing I like about you at the moment is your mom. You can't honestly be as weird as you are with a mom that cool"

Clark shook his head, truly having a good time.

After talking for about an hour, Lois and Clark headed back to the barn party and saw Chloe walking incoherently towards them. It appears she's had one too many drinks she couldn't handle because she fell right on Clark's chest.

"Are you… two… getting married?" Chloe began spouting. Her face was beat red and she looked very tired.

"She's definitely drunk," Lois quickly diagnosed while giving a sideways glance towards Clark.

"I'm NOT duurannnk!" Chloe mumbled, her face plastered on his chest, Clark just held her like that, unsure of what to do next. He's had little experience in parties like these.

"What do I do with her?" he uttered, keeping her still.

Chloe growled and Lois immediately sprung onto action. She grabbed a plastic bag that way lying around and let Clark, who held Chloe in his arms, towards the car. When they got there, Lois caught the first severe side affects to the consumption of alcohol.

When it comes right down to it, Chloe was throwing up.

"Well that's… not right," Clark observed.

Lois raised an eyebrow at him. "I take it you've never been drunk before," she says, making circular motions on her cousin's back as she continued to release herself.

"And I take it that you always are," he retorts.

She smiles knowingly at him. "I've developed immunity over the years. It takes quite of few heavy shots to get me to throw up, let alone lose all coherent thought and navigation."

"You're such a bad influence," he says, playing words with her.

Lois continued the role of big sister as Chloe went in for another disaster through the plastic. Clark shudders at the contents and looked away.

Lois couldn't help but laugh at him. "It's better to live and learn than to live and pay the worst consequence alone. Believe me, she'll think twice the next time she goes out drinking. Chances are, she won't go past a second glass"

"You didn't." He thought maybe he shouldn't have said anything, but Lois didn't look offended.

"Well, I don't have friends like you and Chloe around," she says softly before turning her attention back to a growling Chloe. "Shh… its okay little cousin, it'll be over in a bit"

Clark looked on amazed at how easily Lois seems to shift from one conversation to another. He could thoroughly see why Chloe looks up to her so much.

"Oh, so we're friends now?" he teased a bit, breaking the momentarily silence between them.

Lois looked up, grinning. "Well… I won't tell anyone if you don't"

They both chuckled.

"Ugh, get a room you two!" Chloe says aloud, partly still out of it as she continued to throw up.

Lois just laughed it out. "Apparently, little cousin here thinks there's something going on between us"

"Yeah, I blame the alcohol," he laughed along with her. The past few hours had his mind thinking about the possibilities. Possibilities that confused him greatly. Could he really go there with her, they only just met? Would she say yes?

Though he knew he could never act on what he was beginning to feel, it was still nice to think about it. It never seemed to be like that when he thought about Lana, or anybody else. With the others, it was always whether or not it could work, but now as he thinks about Lois, he had happy thoughts and it was scaring him.

"Clark. Clark!" he heard Lois call for him, breaking him out of his Lois-filled thoughts.

"Yeah, is she okay?"

"No, no, she's fine. You sort of spaced out there for a second, you okay?" she says in concern.

"No, I'm all right, I was just thinking"

"About?"

Clark remained silent.

"Ah… some Clark time huh? That's cool, think for yourself, no pun intended," she smirked devilishly.

Clark just shook his head in admiration.

**To be continued…**


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4 of 4**

It's Lois' last day in Smallville and Clark was more than a little sad to see her go. Sure, she'll be back this summer and then to Metropolis in the fall, but that knowledge alone didn't quell his stomach from feeling all kinds of disorienting knots.

"You sure you don't want to come with me?" Chloe asked as Clark looked up from his desk at The Torch.

"I'm sure," he lied.

"Look, Clark, about what happened a few days ago. I won't stop you," she sincerely admitted.

Clark stared at her in bewilderment and thought back to a few days ago. He smiled internally as he remembered him and Lois taking Chloe home, where she had passed out ten minutes earlier. They spoke to each other the whole way home that night, and a true friendship was forged.

Now back to the present, Lois was leaving, and he wasn't so fond by that fact at all.

"What do you mean, Chloe?"

"I mean…about Lois. I've had some real honest to God self evaluation the last couple of days, and when it comes right down to it, I love you guys. You're both my very best friends, and if you want to, you know, ask her out or something, don't let me stop you."

Clark blinked away his surprise. "Really?"

Chloe just smiled genuinely at him. "Really," she assured. "Now let's hang with her by our poor excuse of a bus stop."

They laugh and headed out.

When they reached their destination, they already saw Lois sitting cross-legged by the side of the road.

"Hey there, cuz!" Chloe greeted with a smile, followed by Clark.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey to you both, too." Lois got up and hugged her cousin. "I'll be back, okay, so try to stay out of trouble at least until I get to brew the trouble with you"

Chloe laughs. "Yeah, you too"

As the cousin's separate, Lois and Clark awkwardly stood in front of each other. Chloe found that this was her cue to leave and makes up some horrid excuse to make her exit. "I've got an article to write," she declared, getting surprised looks from her friends.

"Wait a second," Lois says, lifting a finger and rushing past Clark and towards Chloe.

"Later cousin!" Chloe pressed on the gas and speeded off.

Lois just stood there flabbergasted when suddenly her phone rings. Rolling her eyes, the distinct ringtone she used to differentiate callers indicated who it was. She flipped her cell open and placed it to her ear. "Chlo… Eee…" she answered.

"Hi Lois," she replied, her voice filled with crazy enthusiasm.

"Why'd you leave?" Lois says monotonously.

"So you and Clark can have some alone time," she answered like it had been the simplest question in the world.

Behind them, Clark forced his ears not to hear anything. He hadn't had a clue that Chloe would pull a stunt like this.

"What makes you think we needed to be alone?" she expressed in denial.

"I can tell you like him"

Lois laughs out loud but then immediately silenced her laughter when she saw Clark look at her from the corner of her eye.

"Chloe," she whispered to her with heavy annoyance. "You can't be serious. Turn around right now!" she ordered unconvincingly. All she heard was meek laughter on the other end. "Oh, you're so going to get it, little cousin, mark my words." Lois hung up and turned around to face Clark Kent.

"So…" Clark says, unsure of where to begin while silently cursing Chloe for her little stunt. He knew there were ulterior motives as to why she urged him to come. So why wasn't he all that mad?

"So…" she replied uncharacteristically without anything to say.

Another moment passed, and there was still nothing.

"Well, this is awkward," he concluded, dying to break the silence.

"Did you have anything to do with this?" she crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow.

Clark looked at her surprisingly but held his ground. "Me? No way, I'm just an innocent bystander," he defended truthfully yet eventually feeling grateful to his best friend nonetheless. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but he'll take whatever he can get.

"Uh huh"

"You don't believe me?" he says, feigning offense.

"I didn't say anything"

"Yes you did," he argued.

And then Clark noticed something peculiar. "Where's your dad?" He saw that it was only Lois waiting for the bus.

"Got called in, I'm sure it's another matter of 'national security' so I'm headed back to Europe and he'll meet with me later"

"You do that alone a lot?" he asks curiously.

"Often, actually"

"That's pretty amazing"

She shook her head. "Not really"

"Are you always so hard to converse with, I thought we got along fine the other night"

"I had no idea I was under close observation," she replied, their flirting coming in strong and hard.

"I didn't mean it like…"

"I'm just teasing," she interrupted. "I know what you meant"

And then they were met again with another long silence. This was getting a bit ridiculous for the both of them.

"This **is** awkward," Lois finally agreed.

"See!"

And they share a nice laugh. Clark this time put together all the courage he had and decided to just go for it. What did he have to lose? 

Probably his integrity… but he could live with that.

"You think… maybe we could… uh… dinner… um… breakfast, lunch… I don't know, some kind of food get together when you… get back," he fumbled mercilessly with words. He was normally not this pathetic.

"I don't know, Clark, was there a question somewhere in that sentence?" she smiled at him, amused at his attempt to ask her out.

"Hey, look…" he was about to argue with her when he realized… "You called me Clark"

"That is your name, isn't it?"

Clark smiled and felt a little more confidently and recomposed himself to try again. "Would you go out with me?" he finally managed to ask without clumsiness.

They stare into each others eyes for another moment, almost oblivious to the bus that just parked right beside them.

"That'd be my ride," she says, noticing the bus' arrival.

"You haven't answered my question." If there was a power he needed, it was the gift to read her thoughts. He tried one more time. "Will you go out with me, Lois Lane?" He took a few steps closer to her.

She didn't move, and he took that as a good sign. He cupped her face in his hands and slowly leaned in to kiss her. He felt his kiss reciprocated when she returned it and he felt all the uncertainty fly away now that he knew that she felt something for him.

Parting, "Is that a yes?" he says, their foreheads touching.

"If you say so," says Lois lost in the moment, temporarily wondering where that answer had suddenly come from.

He chuckled, the feelings she invoked in him was new and intoxicating.

"I'll see you when you get settled in then," he concluded, letting her go from his embrace, even though he didn't want to.

Lois finally fell out of her trance and subconsciously agreed to whatever he proposed. She smiled at him before giving him a light punch to the arm. "Seeya'around, Smallville." She walked backwards, passing her duffle bag to the driver to put in the bottom compartment all the while keeping eye contact with Clark Kent.

"Take care of Chloe for me," she says aloud, and then winked at him before climbing the steps of the bus and mouthing a 'Wow' to herself afterwards.

Clark nodded his head and yelled back to her. "I will!"

He waved another goodbye, but the beauty of watching her leave was knowing that it wasn't goodbye. He'll see her again soon, and when the time is right, which he knew now was closer than ever, he's going to take the leap of faith…

"… And then they lived happily ever after," she finished, sweeping her hand through her sleeping son's soft black hair. She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the forehead. "I love you." She smiled when she realized she wasn't alone in the room.

Without turning, "How long have you been standing there?" she says to the figure leaning on the doorframe.

He smiled widely. "Long enough to want to sweep you off your feet," he says romantically. He spent the last few minutes watching his wife share a story to their four year old son to get him to sleep.

She finally turns around and walks towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she met him face to face.

In return, he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her lovingly. "What were you telling him?" he asks, only catching the tail end of her story.

She raised her eyebrows and grinned. "Oh, just the story of how we met," she replied nonchalantly.

"Really?" he says, grinning as well. "I don't remember us meeting like that"

"Hmm…" she reacted, kissing him lightly on the lips. "Somehow, telling our son that I met his father buck naked in the middle of a field without any memory of whom he is would be more than enough to scar him for life"

"He's going to find out eventually," he says, kissing her back.

"That's why it's preferable to tell him when he's older," she smiled.

"Oh yeah, when would that be?" he wondered amusingly.

"Oh, I don't know… twenty five at least," she replied teasingly.

"Lois!" he whispered strongly, unable to rid the smile off his face. He and Lois have been married eight years, been together for ten, and they still find each other insatiable and happy.

"Clark!" she mockingly returns.

"I love you Mrs. Kent," he never tire telling her.

She kisses him again. "I love you back, Mr. Kent." She releases herself from his embrace as he walks quietly toward their son to bid him goodnight. "Even after all these years, I still can't believe that he's ours," he revealed, all the love in the world showing in his soft voice.

"Me too," she whispered in return.

Someone once told them that 'kids are the future. An affirmation and a declaration of faith in what is to come. Faith in the future.' Their child was living proof of that. 

Clark stood up and took one last look towards his son for the night; he made his way back to his wife's side and held her hands tightly with his own.

"Let's go to bed"

She smiled, lifting his hands to kiss them lightly.

"Right behind you, Smallville"

**The End**


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